A store with live fish for sale. Vicinity of Natchitoches, Louisiana, July 1940. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

As much as I enjoy travel I’ve always longed for the possibility of living in the ancient times from old photographs.

I felt to be more a part of that older reality from the beginnings or mid 20th century than a member of the society we live in now, with its brilliant innovations as well as extensive bureaucracy.

I’ve always wanted to travel in time and experience first hand  the freedoms our grandparents enjoyed. My nostalgic feelings covered any miseries and limitations of that life back then like a clean tablecloth.

More and more, however, I see today in the world I live in and the places I visit is how much freedom and beauty is still left at our disposal.

What does the trick for me is my imagination that seems to have gone to sleep soon after I became and adult. It’s waking up covered in dust and faded a bit but still colourful and agile.

Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa

I used to be unable to explain my fascination with such dirty and poverty stricken places. People who live in ghettos like the one above by no means can boast comfortable lives.

Most modern western world city suburbs are made of housing estates with identical or very similar buildings evenly spaced and painted in matching colours.

Third world suburbs have the atmosphere of uniqueness about them. You almost feel the mixture of happiness and bitterness that these places are made of.

I quite like the idea of living in a house built with my own hands from whatever is available for free and then being able to change, adjust and improve it. It’s like being a child all your life.

The reason I looking closely at my finances was because me and my girlfriend were getting more and more into debt and had no plan of paying it all back. A few simple steps helped us pay back around £2000 credit card balance within 4 months. I’m proud of this even more because this happened towards the end of the year and beginning of 2010 so Christmas time when we had to buy gifts and pay for my travel expenses.

When I read financial advice blogs most give the same advice to pay back your debts, save for emergency fund, control your spending and take advantage of compound interest. These come in varying orders but in general they are mostly the same. What very few of them mention is what is the purpose of this tactics and as some of them suggest that you may become wealthy at some point they fail to mention what you do with this accumulated wealth and all the assets.

I guess some of these people are trying to save enough for retirement. Which is probably a very good idea knowing that your health may be failing you by that time and you may no longer be able to work. But is this it?

This guy managed to become financially independent at the age of 30. This is so cool and I can’t help to think it must feel great not to be forced to go to work every day. Which is a quite an achievement.

But I can’t help to think “what if”. I keep asking myself what am I going to do once I’ve accumulated enough assets to be able to quit my job.

- What if my assets lose they’re value suddenly?

- What if I’m unable to enjoy the value of my assets for whatever reason?

- What if aliens invade the earth?

These questions make me feel the whole idea of wealth accumulation is flawed. I mean it’s OK as long as everything is fine. But if something goes wrong globally you’re as fucked as everybody else. You may say this applies equally to those who have accumulated lots of assets and those who haven’t so what’s the problem? Well, the problem for me is I’d rather enjoy living my short life before something bad happens either to myself or to all of us. I know I’m a fatalist .

Let’s think about the world’s economy for a while and how it functions. The global village is growing in strength. Despite the credit crunch we still seem to be doing quite well thanks to the global interconnections. If one place is short of corn it can be easily delivered via plane. So places where nothing is produced may be abundant within the next few years. They will be full of people whose only skills are related to administration of goods and funds while the production is taken care of in other less developed locations. If for any reason transportation of goods becomes impossible these people will be in big trouble – you can’t feed on money!

In my opinion the world economy is in a highly deregulated state at the moment. We rely on so many factors to sustain our lives at the moment such as energy and food supplies it is fairly easy to imagine the whole population can be controlled by suppliers of products we rely on to live.

To me financial independence is an illusion. You are only financially free while living in a society that can only survive as long as the economy keeps growing. Once it starts to decline the results will be fatal.

The answer to this for me is self sustainability i.e. a state in which you can rely solely on your own skills to survive. Unfortunately, I’m very far from that at the moment. Being stable financially is still an important goal for me. But let’s not forget money isn’t everything and remember to live our lives while living within our means.

The new Ryanair ruling requires you to actually purchase a card which is supposed to put people off using them when buying tickets. But what I noticed is it’s actually not the payment itself that’s annoying (I paid 7 pounds for mine and am charged 2% for every transaction) but the fact you can only load it at Post Office unless you can afford further 3% charge when loading in any of the PayPoints.

My pre-paid Master Card doesn’t offer the option to transfer money directly from my account. You can set up a direct debit so a certain amount of money is transferred to this account every month. But you can’t transfer directly to your credit card.

And this is a real pain because I usually buy tickets in the evening or late at night. That means I’d have to wait at least 12 hours before I can top up my card. This obviously means prices are unlikely to be the same after that time.

Another thing is I want to avoid keeping too much money on the pre-paid card in case I need it on my account. Withdrawing money from my pre-paid account also incurs a fee. Obviously I could use it to pay for goods like with a regular credit card but you have to know exactly how much money you have on it otherwise you’ll be embarrassed when it’s declined.

Anyway, I only managed to use my pre-paid Master Card once. It didn’t cost me a penny on the Ryanair website and I’d have to pay additional £30 without the card. But I spent a total of £19 to buy the card and top it up which still saved me a tenner.

So I’m not hating it yet because at least I saved on my first purchase and would have to spend that money anyway. But going to the Post Office to top up is quiet a hassle.

And just so you know, I did believe Bread when I was ordering my card that you can top it up from your own account. But this is semi-true. You can top up via direct debit but not by bank transfer which is a pain!

I’m using the Bread pre-paid Master Card and did shop around for a better option. But couldn’t find anything cheaper and better suited for my needs.

I started to dig around to see how come I missed this great offer. Even though I’m subscribed to Ryanair’s newsletter I got no heads-up for it. I checked on their Press Release page but there was nothing on it either.

So it’s not just me. 66 million Ryanair passengers, some of whom are surely subscribed to the newsletter and others who check their PR website regularly didn’t know of the sell-out. Why?

The only reasonable explanation I can offer is that it’s one of Ryanair’s marketing tactics. News spread quicker by word of mouth then via any press releases, newsletters or any other marketing campaigns. Moreover, it’s reaaaaaaaally cheap.

I continued to wonder how this may work. Surely, Michael O’leary isn’t going to make it easy for us to figure out when he’s planning the next sale.

I went through all Ryanair’s special offers press releases and put their dates on a Google Calendar.

So I went ahead and analysed the press release calendar pattern quickly. Here’s what I found:

Ryanair Press Release Analysis

Almost 60% of all Ryanair special offer announcements were made on a Monday or Tuesday, with just over 20% made on a Thursday. They have never made any announcements on a Saturday, Wednesdays and Sundays being the least popular days when nearly 10% of their announcements were made.

The period analysed was between February 2007 and November 2009 as their announcements don’t go any further than the beginning of 2007.

Very interesting is the immense growth of press release popularity in the second half of this year when almost 60% of all special offer announcements were made – 34 out of 58.

The press release pattern seams very erratic. Some of the offers were prompted by bad publicity, e.g. ‘Ryanair gives away 1.1m FREE seats BBCPanorama lies’ (O’leary beautifully manipulated the whole Panorama crew who did publish his interview on their website).

Right, so what are we gonna do with the findings? There are a few tips we could bear in mind:

- don’t wait for the newsletter to announce any big sales

- they’ll come unexpectedly on Monday or Tuesday

- if not check on a Thursday

- you’re safe to go for a pint on a Friday because there will be no announcements on a Saturday

- Sundays should be quiet too, with only a handful of less important announcements made

Finally, judging from the popularity of the offers yesterday if there will be a sale tickets will go within a few hours. So be prepared to buy when the time comes.

I’d love to be able to provide any alternative analyses of this type but unfortunately weren’t able to find any. Looks like Ryanair’s not very popular with academics.

Anyway, hope this helps a little bit. Keep your eyes open and let me know if you spot any trends. And any big sales of course!

I. Ask, and it shall be given you

World’s not as bad as it seems. Most societies function on the basis of trust and respect. People do help one another most of the time. It is true you may encounter something not exactly nice abroad but the same may happen at home. I moved several times in my life and after moving to the new place I was always surprised by how nice people were in this new place. After a couple of years it turns out they’re just normal. Just like in the previous place. The truth is, though, positive attitude is contagious and if you’re acting naturally people you meet will reciprocate it. If you need something remember to try and ask for it. You may not get it the first time around and you will not get it all the time, but people will help you most of the time

II. Have a plan

I’m planning on leaving my job in two years. Me and my girlfriend are saving aggressively to put away enough to travel for at least one year. After that we’ll find jobs again and decide if we wan’t to travel again or stay in our cosy dwelling.

III. Tell your friends

This one’s really cunning. Some people think you shouldn’t tell your friends about your plans because they’ll find millions of ways to stop you. I believe people in general do have a tendency see your plans in black colours. This may be depressing sometimes but at least you’ll get ideas on how to prepare. Just don’t give up because of any generic advice like ‘it’s impossible’ or ‘nobody else do it’ these can be dismissed with simple ‘it’s possible because there are people who did it’. Look for valid positive and negative points. Enjoy the positives and work out ways to overcome any negatives.

IV. Go for shorter trips first

Take a couple of months or even a few weeks off at work. Plan your budget, your route and style of travel. Think of where you’re going to sleep, wash and eat. If you’re planning to spend most of the nights in a tent, make sure you have the right gear, i.e. appropriate sleeping bag and tent. Do everything that you want to do for the trip of your life. Then go back home and check how to make your travel more efficient, more fun, safer, cheaper and more convenient. You’ll be surprised to know how many other people had done that kind of thing before.

V. Learn to save

The more you save during your trips the longer your trip will last. Frugal lifestyle can be learned. Unless your parents are millionaires and want to share their fortune with you, you’ll need to know how to make use of every single penny in your pocket. Start at home, think of ways you can save. Aim at saving aggressively as this is precisely what you’ll need to do. Try to estimate how much you’d be saving a month and how quickly you’ll save enough to start your trip. Then go to the financial planning section on Stumble Upon and look for further ideas on how to save. You’ll be surprised at how inspiring this is. There are some unbelievable ideas on how to save.

VI. Practice DIY

Do-it-yourself skills are helpful no matter if you want to travel or not. They teach creativity and self efficiency. Being able to do something with your own hands gives you a boos of positive energy. You can use your DIY skills to save money for your trip e.g. fix furniture, leaks, electric appliances thus saving on repairs and maintenance costs; also you can prolong the life of your home appliances and won’t have to spend money on buying new ones. You can use these skills as a source of additional income.

VII. Sell stuff you don’t need

Sell everything you no longer use, pay back your credit cards and then destroy them. You’ll unclutter your house, get some more money for your trip and make other people happy.

VIII. Avoid buying

You have to buy food and pay your bills which you can hardly avoid. But buying all the expensive travel gear is just a waste of money. Unless you’re going to a specific region in the world where particular type of gear is required to survive, you’ll not need any of the fancy stuff advertised on Amazon. Most of the ‘professional’ travel stuff is overpriced and simply unnecessary. When backpacking, you’ll learn there’s reallyfew things that you really need:

1. intelligence - is your best friend. It’ll help you make important decisions and react to unexpected circumstances. It’ll help you make do with what you’ve got.

2. knife - traditionally, indispensable traveller’s tool. If you can’t carry a knife through airport security checks, buy a cheap one after arrival. You’ll not need anything fancy. A knife is a knife unless you’re a Rambo.

3. tent and sleeping bags – these items can add to your feeling of freedom and save you quite a lot of money. Check out urban camping on Stumble Upon to get an idea on how to use your tent in the urban jungle. Besides, camp-sites are usually much cheaper in cities and have a shower. It’s important to shower when you travel!

4. money - money’s always handy. Play cards or pool to win even more! Alternatively, use it to buy food.

IX. Get second, third or fourth job

The closer you get to your departure the easier it will be to work hard. Save as much money as you can. Plus, getting additional jobs will teach you new skills you can use during your trips or to get a job after you come back.

X. Be positive

If travelling is really what you wan’t to do think of the 9 billion people there are in the world. Almost everybody love to travel. Most of these people will help you live your dream.

If you love it like I do, here’s 10 ways to enjoy your trips even more.

Our cheapest fares are available, on www.ryanair.com, for passengers who travel at off peak times (after 12.00 Monday to 12.00 Thursday and after 12.00 on a Saturday). Our lowest fares generally require an advance purchase of 14 days; however this can vary up to 28 days. Passengers can search for our lowest fares by checking the flexible search option box when selecting your departure and destination airport.

1. Don’t pay for baggage

I can’t  stress enough how important it is for me to travel light. One bag is all I need. Travelling with Ryanair you’ll need to pay for any item of luggage apart from your hand luggage. I’ve referenced One Bag a lot of times on this blog. It may not work the first time but eventually you’ll become a one-bag master. It takes a little thought, planning and patience. But it pays well. Both me and my girlfriend have travelled light for the past year. It gives you freedom, lets you enjoy your holiday even more and it’s cheaper.

If you buy 5 round trip tickets a year,  you’ll save £300 as opposed to anyone usually travelling with one item of checked bag and a staggering £1000 in comparison to those usually taking 2 suitcases. £300 means at least one more round trip for me and my girlfriend. Alternatively, you can spend this money on high quality lightweight clothes that will keep you warm and will dry quickly.

2. Don’t pay for insurance

If you travel often get an annual travel insurance that will cost about 15 pounds. Again, you’ll save about £45 on 5 round trips and can chose the cover that suits you best.

3. Don’t pay for priority boarding

Don't pay for priority boarding

Theoretically, all passengers could buy priority boarding and would all be standing in the same queue. It’s 8 pounds per return trip = 4 pints!

4. Don’t pay for anything on board

Raffle tickets, coke and smoke-free cigarettes are all great fun and help fund the cheap tickets. Thank you guys

Don't buy anything on board

5. Don’t pay credit card charges

Ryanair charges ridiculous amounts for all credit and debit cards apart from Visa Electron. Here’s more on how to obtain one.

6. Keep an eye out on offers

Ryanair’s special offers website is useful sometimes but I prefer Skyscanner.net. You’ll have to buy directly via Ryanair’s website anyway. But their search engine really gives you the best overview of the cheap flight offers. If you’re really determined you can experiment with various destinations and connecting flights combinations. Don’t forget to check out the guide to Sleeping in Airports. Sleeping in an airport may not sound like an great idea but it can help take prices of your tickets really low.

Remember to check other airlines for better access to cities. Ryanair’s strategy is to minimize costs by flying to unpopular remote airports.

7. Booking techniques

Booking in advance is usually the best way of ensuring you’ll get your tickets at a reasonable price. Prices may go up nearer to the departure but they also may go down. Ryanair’s sell outs are usually 2 weeks prior to the departure which ideal for last minute fans.

Also tickets tend to be least expensive in November, January and June. Yes, June is the beginning of the holiday season, this is when days are longest and weather is reasonably good. For some regions like the Mediterranean, Spain and France it’ll probably be too hot anyway for those used to the weather on the Isles.

8. Check your destination

Before paying for your £10 return check how easy and cheap it’ll be to reach your final destination. Ryanair prefers low budget small and remote airports that charge little and are unpopular with other airlines. Some of their flights arrive late at night when there is no other transport available. And a 50 mile ride in a cab is expensive everywhere in the world. Always sum up the cost of your flight and airport transport before you buy any tickets. It may be cheaper to pay more for air travel.

I personally never used it and usually there’s just a handful of people using the priority boarding. In fact, I usually fly with my girlfriend and quite frequently we simply wait till all passengers boarded the plane. Usually, we have no difficulty finding adjacent seats. Anyway, I prefer to wait and be separated from my GF for a couple hours than to wait in the queue for half an hour.

Priority queue is just another way of Ryanair making money on those who are ready to pay the extra fee to feel a little bit better. Which is good because that makes my tickets cheaper.

Ryanair Baggage

Travelling with Ryanair for newbies

Ryanair offers shockingly low prices but some of their policies are equally extraordinary. They found a niche in the market where they are a leader. And they work hard for it.

Internet is full of horror stories, I personally witnessed a situation when a couple wasn’t allowed on board because Ryanair allows overbooking. That basically means they always sell more tickets than there is spaces. Just so you don’t get caught out. Some of their fees are really outrageous.

Anybody thinking of travelling with Ryanair should first read their FAQ.

General advice

Ryanair are as inflexible as required to lay their hands on your money. I.e. if they can charge you, they will charge you. Any mistakes on the part of the traveller are penalised severely. They make millions on those hidden charges.

Credit Card Fees

Something I talked about already.

Baggage Fees

Passengers are encouraged to only take as little baggage as possible. Ryanair’s really strict. Here’s an excerpt from their FAQ:

Each passenger is permitted to check- in up to a maximum of 2 bags with a maximum weight of 15 kilos per bag (subject to the payment of the applicable checked baggage fees).

Checked baggage fees are charged per person/per one way flight. Discounted fees are available online.

No pooling or sharing of baggage allowances is permitted, even within a party travelling on the same reservation. Each checked bag is permitted a maximum 15kgs allowance. In the event that you are travelling with 2 checked bags please be aware that no pooling of individual checked bag allowance is permitted (each bag is permitted a maximum weight of 15 kilos).

Any passenger exceeding their 15kg personal checked baggage allowance (per checked bag purchased) will be charged for the excess weight at the applicable rate per kilo

Read on to find out about further restrictions.

It really is worth reading through this section prior to making your travel arrangements. Every single item of luggage apart from the cabin baggage is charged for separately.

Each passenger (excluding infants) is permitted to carry one piece of cabin baggage on board (free of charge). Strictly one item of cabin baggage is permitted per passenger (excluding infants). Your handbag, briefcase, laptops, shop purchases, camera etc must be carried within your permitted 1 piece of cabin baggage. It should weigh no more than 10kg and not exceed the maximum dimensions of 55cm x 40cm x 20cm.

So it is strictly 1 item of hand luggage ONLY and nothing more period! This also applies to any items purchased at duty free shops. You’ll have to fit all your belongings into the one item of hand luggage.

Before you ask, they do check if your luggage fits within the maximum dimensions. I have a case that is barely within these measurements and am often asked to put it through the baggage gauge. You may not believe me but I did see disappointment on their faces when it did. I don’t know if they are commissioned for any oversize baggage that they find or if it was spontaneous.

You should also be careful about your hand luggage:

Extra/oversized cabin baggage will be refused at the boarding gate, or where available, placed in the hold of the aircraft for a fee of £35/€35. If you are unsure, check at the Bag Drop desk before going through security.

Here’s more:

Be warned Ryanair are now becoming completely militant about bags at the gate. In Prestwick they are now weighing bags at the gate and if you are even 1kilo over they will charge you £35 to check your bag in. At Dublin if your bag does not fit in the baggage gauge they too will sting you with a 35EUR fee. Ryanair are cheap but can end up being much more expense. Unless you have no choice book another airline or if you do fly with them make sure your cabin bag is small and weights just 10kg.

Check out this website for a full list of Ryanair fees

Print boarding cards

If you follow the strict rules and print off boarding cards and stick to luggage limits you will be fine. Staff surly and very quick to check you are compliant – and woe betide if you are not as they are ferocious in making sure you are within the rules. On our return flight many (15-20 ) passengers were pulled to one side and made to condense cabin luggage. A no frills airline I would use again if there was no other choice. Other negatives – constant selling during the flight and the most uncomfortable seats ever even on short haul.

Online check-in is currently the only option. You must have your boarding cards printed out or guess what – there will be an additional fee. Again absent those minded, lost or forgetful will be penalized for their lack of organization. This really is infuriating as surely other airlines would simply find out a way of resolving this type of issue. But the whole purpose is that you do pay the fee if you have forgotten because it’s yet another source of income.

Contact

I never needed to phone Ryanair apart from the one time when I found out about their enormous telephone charges. I decided it wasn’t that important for me to contact them anymore . However, their outrageous telephone fees seem to have changed since.

A remnant of the good old times is this website. As I check today it costs 1op per minute to contact them from a landline in the UK within the normal working hours weekdays only. However, they still have the expensive line paid at £1 per minute that’s open longer hours as well as weekends. Just so you know in case you have to phone them in emergency.

You will probably find their cheap lines extremely busy but it’s one of their strategies to minimise costs. You should only call with important matters. It’s nice to benefit from their low prices so we should all respect the fact they’re saving on the contact centres (I guess it’s easy to say when everything goes well but much harder when you’re pissed off).

Timekeeping

Arriving ahead of schedule is their greatest pride. If they land ahead of schedule or on time it’ll be announced on board and the message is usually followed by another about how 95% or their flights arrive on time.

Ryanair is Europe’s most punctual airline, as verified by the UK Civil Aviation Authority. We are committed to doing all we can to operate flights on time. You can help us enormously by being fully prepared for your flight. In particular, by pre-booking on our website for items such as checked baggage/priority boarding/baby car/booster/seats/sports/musical equipment; arriving at the airport in good time; travelling with the correct cabin baggage allowance; having the correct travel documentation ready for inspection at check-in, at security points and at the gate; and arriving at the boarding gate in plenty of time.

I guess the idea behind their punctuality is much more than just PR. Airlines pay for “any Aircraft which is on the Airport (from touch down to take-off) or scheduled to be on the Airport for any part of the following periods“.

Which is just one of the many fees. Here’s an examples of charges applied by the London City Airport.

Ryanair’s trying to keep these costs to the minimum, as “or scheduled to be on the Airport for any part of the following periods” simply means that if the plane is late your fees start to be calculated at the beginning of plane’s scheduled arrival up until the late departure time.

Some of the non-cheap carriers are not very strict about punctuality, some are even notorious for not sticking to the timetable but its passengers that are paying for their negligence.

On the other hand, Ryanair staff are extremely well organised and will push for speedy boarding. Which is what brings me to allegations of their lack of friendliness.

Unfriendly staff

I guess sometimes you could really say they’re unfriendly. Some of them are very tense and strict. I have never seen any of the staff losing it with any of the passengers but I wouldn’t be surprised to find this to happen occasionally.

On the I hate Ryanair blog I found this comment by one of Ryanair staff:

Hi,
I work for Ryanair myself, as a cabin crew, and really can only apologize for what we’ve got to offer. People seem to forget that both crew and passengers should both stay on the same side and blame whoever is making great money out us, real idiots, that for one reason or the other, have to work or fly for this company. Ryanair sucks, no way how to deny it, but can we really start doing something about it? As for myself, having to daily deal with both very unhappy cabin/flight crew and angry passengers, I can only suggest that we cooperate and put Ryanair where they really deserve: in court! To those passengers who take it on crew i beg you some mercy because we are, at the end of the day, the ones that suffers the worse of treatments, the ones that literally starve in foreign countries and put into debt and live in constant fear of loosing our miserable job just because somebody is in a bad mood. For some, the solution is simple and immediate: leave Ryanair! Unfortunately, this is so well schemed out, that most of us end up owing more money to the company and to the bank that we have no other choice. What Ryanair do to hire crew is called fraud very well hidden in smart contracts and based on big lies. Most of us are trapped and desperately seeking help to get rid of this company. Normally, we are foreigners that got into debt, changed country and find ourselves in a dead end. To all the unhappy passengers, again, I apologize and ask for their help. I am currently seeking help in an European court and encourage others to do so. Sometime, this has to end because such a fraud cannot sustain a company on a long term. That’s Ryanair’s biggest stupidity.

I have no clue what this person means by fraud very well hidden in smart contracts but it is definitely alarming.

Generally, you’re safe if you know the rules and come prepared. Once they have noticed you don’t know the rules they’ve got you. And they’ll make you suffer. You’re their prey of the day . Some people feel uncomfortable about being rushed about and sometimes patronized.

No airport announcements

Don’t expect to hear any airport announcements of this sort: “Passenger Smith and Wozinsky are requested to proceed to gate number 5″. Ryanair doesn’t pay for airport announcements and you have to make sure you’re at the right gate at the right time.

No connecting flights

Be careful when booking connecting flights with Ryanair. You’ll have to check in at the airport again to get onto another flight. And if you have little time or the first plane is late the plane won’t wait for you.

Ryanair is a ‘point-to-point’ airline. We therefore do not offer, and cannot facilitate, the transfer of passengers or their baggage to other flights, whether operated by Ryanair or other carriers.Passengers should not book onward flights connections with Ryanair or indeed with any other air or surface carrier.

Ryanair accepts no responsibility for making connections and therefore will not be liable for any losses or expenses arising out of any failure to achieve a planned connection. Source: Can I book a connecting flight with Ryanair?

That also means, if you want to buy tickets for more than one journey, you’ll need to pay credit card fees again unless you have a Visa Electron.

No changes

No changes can be made to a reservation once a passenger has checked in for a flight

As you probably know, Ryanair currently only offers online check-in. That means you’ll be filling in your personal details yourself: your date of birth and passport number must be correct. You will be refused to go onboard if your details don’t match exactly. And if they don’t you’ll also not be able to make any changes. The only option then is to buy a new ticket.

No senior fares

As simple as that.

Excess baggage fees

Tommy & Gail Sheridan pay £870 excess baggage charge on £30 flight

Again, sever penalties per each kilo of excess baggage. You can end up paying a fortune. Always consider flying with another airline if you have a lot of excess stuff.

Flights cancellation and schedule changes policy

If your flight is cancelled or before the date of travel, is rescheduled so as to depart more than three hours before or after the original departure time then you will be entitled to a travel credit or full refund of all monies paid if the alternative flight/s offered are not suitable to you and you do not travel. Source: Ryanair Terms and Conditions of Travel

What this means is if your Ryanair flight is cancelled or rescheduled 2 days prior to your planned flight you’ll get your money back. Say, you paid £10. This is precisely what you’re gonna get. I guess I don’t have to tell you booking with another airline 2 days prior to departure is going to be expensive .

Remote and secondary airports

Yeah, that’s quite of a nuisance actually. Recently I bought very cheap tickets to Oslo Torp and was very disappointed when I found bus travel to Oslo would cost me almost twice as much as I paid for my fare. This is a part of the cheap ticket deal. Some of the airports are quite far away from bigger cities so plan your trip ahead. The use of cheap airports is combined with the use of ‘cheap’ arrival/departure hours.

Weird arrival/departure times

Some airports start to charge extra early in the morning just so it’s possible to get to or from the airport using public transport. Ryanair, however, sometimes schedule their flights beyond these periods, usually early in the morning or late at night. Beware, because if you don’t own a car you’ll pay dearly for a cab.

Summary

From my experience Ryanair do charge their customers for most stupid things. This is their policy, this is how they make money. Frequent flyers are not surprised and come prepared. I’ve learned my lesson the hard way and wish I had known how strict they were in executing their rules. That’s the way it is and once you accept it you’ll enjoy their low prices.

For those interested, here’s some info:

Ryanair’s marketing techniques

Price of Ryanair Tickets

Ryanair Fees and How to Avoid Them

Let me know of your experiences with Ryanair. Were they bad/good? Do you enjoy flying with Ryanair? Do you hate them?

A former prisoner become a financial advisor says money’s not making you better. You need money to get food and shelter. Period.

My time locked up has taught me lots, but the greatest lesson is that simple is beautiful. Happiness isn’t about material possessions, or drugs, or money, or even love. It’s about self acceptance and inner peace. Free yourself from materialism and learn to accept who and what you are, because the happiness you’re pursuing can only come from inside.

So yeah, people are living their lives the way they want, rather than how ads dictate. I’ve been thinking that way for ages, but lacked consistency in my approach. I didn’t realize how many people in the world think the same way.

I’m quite happy anyway though, coz finally I understand precisely where I’m going. I have a plan to stop working at some point in the future. I’m working on a plan to make this come true.